Making Small Talk

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This course is designed for non-native English speakers who are interested in advancing their careers in the global marketplace. In this course, you will learn about the job search, application, and interview process in the United States, while comparing and contrasting the same process in your home country. This course will also give you the opportunity to explore your global career path, while building your vocabulary and improving your language skills to achieve your professional goals. The first unit in this course will introduce the U.S. job application process and provide strategies for identifying the jobs that match your interests and skills. Unit 2 will take you through the steps necessary to produce a professional-looking resume. In unit 3, you will work to develop a clear and concise cover letter. The final unit of the course focuses on networking and interview skills.
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강사:

Brian McManus

Language Specialist

Robyn Turner

Senior Language Specialist

스크립트

Hello. In this video we're going to discuss making small talk. We'll define what small talk is, give some examples of it and explain how making Small Talk is relevant to networking and ultimately finding a job. So to begin, let's define what Small Talk is. Small Talk is when you make polite conversation with someone. Often the conversation is with someone you don't know very well, so you may have to speak with this person for the very first time. A conversation may begin as small talk and then continue into speaking about something more important. But usually, Small Talk is the first stage before you can get to that more important place. For example, let's say you are in a business meeting with your co-workers. You might begin the conversation with one of your colleague by asking her about her family. You might say, hey, Maria, how are you? How's your family doing? Did your youngest start school yet? In this situation, the speaker asks a question about his co-worker's family. Questions are a good way to get a conversation started. Usually, small talk sticks to topics that we consider safe. In the United States, chatting about someone's family is generally a safe topic. Chatting about the weather is a safe topic. Chatting about food, or travel, or movies, are safe topics. Safe topics are ones where you can be pretty sure where you can be pretty sure that you will not upset, or offend the person, by talking about these topics. In the US, we usually stay clear of certain topics, topics that we consider taboo or controversial, topics that could upset someone. Some examples of taboos in the US are religion, politics and salary. It's best to avoid discussing these topics in a conversation, especially with someone you're trying to make a good impression with. So, you would never say to a colleague in a conversation, how much money do you make in your job? Perhaps, to help you make small talk, you should have a number of questions already prepared. That way, you're not tongue tied or unable to speak when you meet someone. This brings up an important point regarding small talk or conversation in general, a lot of people are introverted or shy by nature. They feel uncomfortable talking about themselves especially to strangers. This is a perfectly normal thing. However, if you have such a personality, you don't want this to stop you from having a conversation with someone who might possibly open a door to a future job. You will need to try and find a way to overcome this personality obstacle. In social situations, like meeting someone for the first time and feeling pressure to speak, asking questions is a good way to take the focus off you. If you have a number of questions already prepared, this will also help take some of the stress away in these uncomfortable situations. Beforehand, write down a number of the questions that you can use in these situations. Choose topics from the safe list we talked about earlier. Here are couple of examples, one how was your weekend? Did you do anything fun or interesting? Two, the weather forecast looks very nice for this coming weekend. Do you have any plans? Or three, what restaurants would you recommend for lunch? These are just a few examples. Try these out of few times on a friend or a family member to see if they work, and whether you need more practice. Select the ones you think work well and throw out the ones that don't. In this video, we've looked at the topic of Small Talk. We've examined some examples of it and discussed how it is relevant to networking. Next, we'll play a game with appropriate phrases from a conversation.